Our project aims to increase the efficiency and lifetime of PEM water electrolysis. The innovation consists of optimizing porous transport layers in PEM water electrolyzers. The materials currently in use were originally developed for filter technology and are therefore not sufficiently optimized for PEM water electrolysis. Novel femtosecond laser material processing and PVD coating techniques are combined in an interdisciplinary manner and evaluated with newly developed cell-level characterization methods.
The aim is to prepare a transfer of the methods developed and tested (in the course of the project) in the field of surface functionalization into an industrially relevant process.